MAGIC, BLACK AND WHITE
The gods of the old religion were good enough for Kapua Mangu, who
detested the blasphemous absurdities of Hau-hauism, and he had
brought Te Karearea, the backslider, to the underground haunt--known,
he believed, only to himself--partly to convince him that the arms of
these same old gods were still powerful, and partly for another
reason.
Actuated by the first of these motives, he had produced his very
strongest card at the outset of the interview, and flung at the chief
the dried body of a _tuatara_, a large and harmless lizard,
indigenous to New Zealand.
Yet this was quite enough to overthrow the nerve of a strong, clever
man, and render him weak and impotent from actual fear. For in such
terror do the Maoris hold all lizards, that the mere pronunciation of
the word _Ngara_, a generic term for the whole race, makes the
bravest warrior tremble.
The deep-voiced command of Kapua Mangu arrested the flight of the
chief, and, as if the sight of the demon on the ground were not
sufficient, the old man, with pointing finger, asked in a terrifying
screech: 'Where, O Hawk of the Mountain, where is the _mere_ of
TUMATAUENGA?'
Te Karearea started, but before he could reply, the venerable mystic
flung his arms above his head and chanted in his fine, sonorous voice
the race-old prophecy of the greenstone club:--
'Behold! In the days to come a strange, strong race
Shall contend with the Maori.
Ah! Then shall the days be full of evil and danger
For the house of Te Turi.
'And behold! In those days of unrest and contention
One of the House of Te Turi shall give to one of the strong,
strange race
The _mere_ of TUMATAUENGA.
Aue! Aue! Alas for the House of Te Turi.
Aue! Aue! Then shall the doom and the end
Of the House of Te Turi be nigh!
'But behold! If the stranger cleave to the race of the Maori,
If he give back of his own free will to one of the House of
Te Turi
The _mere_ of TUMATAUENGA,
Then shall the House of Te Turi arise again from the dust.
Only thus shall the doom be averted!'
'All this thou knewest, O Hawk of the Mountain! All this I spake in
thine ear, O son of the dead and gone White Mist!' declaimed the old
wizard. 'Guile, not force, must win the _mere_ of TUMATAUENGA from
the Pakeha to whom Te Kaihuia gave it. Yet, if he resign the weapon
of his own free will, even though he lay it aside but for a moment,
and thou hast the wit to seize it, then it is thine.' His voice sank
suddenly to an ordinary tone. 'But doubtless, so astute a man as Te
Karearea, knowing all this, has already acted upon it. Say then, O
friend,' he concluded mildly, 'where is the _mere_ of TUMATAUENGA?'
Very slowly Te Karearea drew his greenstone club from his belt and
stretched his sinewy arm across the _tapu_ line. 'It is here,' he
faltered, and almost as the lie dropped from his lips, leaped
backwards with a wild yell of terror.
For the lizard, suddenly and mysteriously endowed with life, sprang
straight at him, its scaly body colliding with his hand.
Te Karearea's club clattered to the ground, and his limbs, stiff with
horror, held him rooted to the spot after that one backward impulse;
while the lizard, its strange vitality extinguished as instantly as
it had been kindled, tumbled back inertly upon the ridge.
'Liar!' shrieked the old man, shaking a warning finger in the face of
the trembling chief. 'Fool! who thought to deceive the watchful
TUMATAUENGA. Hear now, O stupid Hawk, the word which the gods have
spoken to me.'
Te Karearea was badly stricken as it was, but his eyes bulged as
Kapua Mangu poured out the whole history of the greenstone club from
the moment when Te Kaihuia had handed it to George. He had spoken
with none but the chief since the arrival of the Hau-haus, and yet
the minutest details were known to him, and he lashed Te Karearea
with his tongue until, compelled by exhaustion, he stopped and
staggered back against the tree.
Now was Te Karearea's opportunity to escape, and he stooped swiftly
to regain his club, keeping a wary eye upon the lizard, when suddenly
he discerned around the body of the _tuatara_ a thin cord of
blackened flax, indistinguishable in the gloom, unless closely looked
for. Te Karearea drew his mat across his face so that he might
indulge in a quiet grin.
Presently Kapua Mangu, having got his second wind, advanced to
complete the humiliation of the chief; but to his amazement, he
detected a decided sneer on Te Karearea's thin lips.
'Beware, O stupid Hawk!' he yelled fiercely. 'Beware, lest I deliver
you into the power of the tuatara.'
For answer Te Karearea snatched up the cord, wrenched the end from
the magician's hand, and slung the lizard from him with a derisive
laugh. It fell just within the circle of heads.
The chief was somewhat taken aback by this, which he certainly had
not intended; but he preserved a bold front, poked out his tongue
until it almost reached his chest, and rolled his eyes frightfully.
But Kapua Mangu, confronted thus by such an uncivil infidel, set up a
howl of horror.
'_Aue! Aue!_' he wailed. 'Alas for the House of Te Turi.'
Tears ran from his aged eyes, and his gaunt body shook with a terror
which was quite unfeigned.
'_Hi! Hi!_' exclaimed Te Karearea. 'What a fuss about nothing. I
saw the cord with which you made him jump. He cannot hurt.'
'Nay, nay,' protested Kapua Mangu mournfully; 'you are a fool. It
was for your sake I put the cord upon him. Had I not pulled him back
when he jumped, he would have devoured you before my eyes.'
This was an entirely new view of the situation, and the
self-satisfied grin faded from Te Karearea's face. The old
superstitions were tugging at him once more. 'I will bring him
back,' he said humbly, and took a hesitating step in the direction of
the heads.
Kapua Mangu was genuinely frightened, but, being by no means certain
that anything would happen, he felt compelled to regain his
ascendency by thoroughly frightening the chief once more. So he drew
largely upon a vivid imagination in order to restrain the foolhardy
infidel.
'Stay, fool!' he shrieked. 'The spirits of the dead are angry.
There is Te Pouri whom you slew, and Te Kaihuia whom you sped upon
the road to Reinga. They are talking to one another. They are
nodding their heads and saying: "Here comes the stupid Hawk. Let us
seize him and----" Ah-h-h!'
It is impossible to describe the long-drawn, quavering scream which
brought the poor wizard's ravings to a sudden close. Never was
venerable sorcerer so completely taken aback, so utterly horrified at
the success of his own magic.
For, as it happened, his last coherent words exactly described the
behaviour of two of the heads. Incredible to relate, they were
nodding at one another, and gruesome enough was the sight in that
gloomy underworld. It was too much for the old _tohunga_, and with
another yell of fear and horror, he fled from the awful scene which,
as he fully believed, his own magic had evoked.
More scared by the wild talk of the wizard than he would have cared
to admit, Te Karearea glanced over his shoulder at that first
panic-stricken yell. Then he turned his head again, and his own
blood froze.
For he, too, now saw the nodding heads and--oh, fearsome
sight!--their voiceless conference at an end, the pair came rushing
at him with a strange, bobbing motion, enough of itself to scare any
wretched mortal. But, as if that were not sufficient, the two
frolicsome heads stopped suddenly in their wild career, threw
themselves back, and burst into peal upon peal of harsh, demoniac
laughter.
It was the last straw. One horrified look Te Karearea cast behind
him in frenzied appeal to the _tohunga_, and thus becoming aware of
that ancient fraud, who with flapping mat and twinkling, skinny legs,
raced along the back-track, he turned and rushed after the
discomfited magician, who just then afforded an admirable example of
an 'engineer hoist with his own petard.'
No sooner did the chief take to his heels, than a still more singular
phenomenon was exhibited; for the two heads developed bodies, arms,
and legs, not to speak of trousers and boots, materialising, the one
into George, the other into Terence. The latter caught up the torch
from the ridge, the former secured the two heads with whose
personality they had made so free, and together they sped after the
vanishing couple, who were much too scared to think of looking behind
them.
As they passed an immense jumble of logs and broken boughs, George
dropped the heads into the midst of it. 'This place may be useful to
us by and by,' he said, 'and if those two return and find them lying
about, they will smell a rat.'
Terence burst into a sputtering laugh. 'I thought I should have died
when you squatted on your hocks and went hopping down on the chief.
And the face of his mightiness! Oh, oh, oh! I shall never forget
it.'
'Steady, old fellow!' cautioned George, with a responsive grin.
'It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the chief's scare has
proved our salvation.'
Closely following Te Karearea's line of flight, they soon passed
through a hole into the midst of some thick bushes. Then the cool
night air blew in their faces, and overhead blazed the myriad stars
of the southern sky. They were in the upper world once more.
But what was their surprise when the black mass of the stockade
surrounding the _pah_ loomed in front of them, some forty rods away.
There was no doubt of it; for far below them, across the river, they
could see the twinkling fires of the bivouac in the forest, while in
the intense stillness the splash and scurry of the leaping water in
the cañon came plainly to their ears.
'It is clear that we were all kept off the hill to-night in order
that our ancient friend might introduce the chief unobserved into the
secret haunt we have just left,' said Terence.
'And little did they dream that they would have an audience,' put in
George. 'I know a good deal more about things than I did an hour
ago. Let us go down and camp on the flat. There are worse beds than
the heart of a flax-bush, and we shall be well concealed in case they
are hunting for us. We are sure to have been missed from the
bivouac.'
'Let us take the bearings of this opening before we go,' suggested
Terence. 'How are we facing? Ah! there's the Southern Cross.'
'This rock is a good guide,' said George. 'The bushes hide the
opening very completely, and I dare say it can be further disguised.
I wonder if many people know of it.'
'I should think not, and I am sure that the hole by which we entered
is not commonly known,' replied Terence. 'We must do our best to
find it again.'
They found the track and descended the hill to the plain, hiding
themselves as quickly as possible among the flax-bushes near the
river road. Then George said:
'I will tell you to-morrow all that passed between Te Karearea and
Kapua Mangu, and why I am regarded as such a valuable asset. Why,
the chief's very existence appears to depend upon his success in
making a Pakeha-Maori of me.'
'Tell all about it,' pleaded Terence.
'You cormorant! Haven't you had excitement enough for one night?
Not a word--oh, just one. If I lay the greenstone club aside, even
for a moment, and you are by, call my attention to it at once,
please. Otherwise things may happen.'
'You mean creature! How do you expect me to sleep in peace?'
complained Terence. 'I shall dream all night of you and your magic
club.'
George curled himself up in the heart of a flax-bush. 'Don't tread
upon me if your dreams make you walk in your sleep,' he laughed.
'I'm for bed.'
'Me too,' said Terence. 'I'm looking for a soft spot.'